Circuit-controller.



T. E. BARNUM.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLER.

APPLICATION FILED nun. 19x4.

1,170,728. 1 Patented Feb. 8, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1.

mm 3% 5. Xwvmwv T. E. BARNUM.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLER.

APPLlCATiON men MAY 11. I914.

Patented Feb. 8, 1916.

a SHEETSSHEET 2.

T/E. BARNUM.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLER;

APPLICATION FILED MAY II. 1914.

Patented Feb. 8, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

vm n nw UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS E. BABNUM, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOB TO THE CUTLER-HAIHEB MFG. CO., MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION 0] W15- CONSIN.

, CIRCUIT-CONTROLLER.

1,170,728. s ecimaon of Letter: 2mm. t t 8 1916 Application filed Kay11, 1814. Serial No. 837,833.

To allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. Barnum, a citizen of the United States,residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State ofWisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements inCircuit-Controllers, of which the following is a full, clear, concise,and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing,forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in circuit controllers and moreparticularly to those of the so-called drum type. In order to disclosethe nature and characteristic features of the invention, the same hasbeen illustrated in the accompanying drawings as embodied in acontroller particularly adapted for use in connection with motoroperated washing machines to effect automatic reversal of the drivingmotor at regular intervals.

It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited tothe specific structure shown and is susceptible of advantageous use invarious other relations.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the controller with asection of its inclosing casing broken away to disclose the controlmechanism principally in elevation, but partially in section. Fig. 2 isan end elevation of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.Fig. 4 is a section on line H of Fig. 1 and, Fig. 5 is a diagrammaticview showing one circuit arrangement for the controller.

Referring to Fig. 1 the controller includes a revoluble drum section 10cooperating with relatively stationary contact fingers 1.1, 12, 13, 14and 15 and two additional fingers 16 and 17 to engage stationarycontacts 18 and 19 respectively. It is of course to be understood thatthe drum section may be provided with any preferred number andarrangement of contact segments; that the number and arrangement of thecontact fingers may be likewise varied as desired and that theadditional contacts and fingers may be omitted if preferred. The drumsection 10 is revoluble to cooperate with different contact fingers tovary the electrical connections of the controlled motor and the contactfingers 11 to 17 inclusive are adjustable toward and away from the drumsection and contacts 18 and 19 to make and break circuit. The contactfingers 11 to 17 are operable automatically under certain conditions andmanually operable at will.

The foregoing and other parts of the controller are housed within a boxor casing 20. The drum is fixed to a shaft 21 having bearings 22 1nopposite ends of the casing. The contact fingers 11 to 17 are allmounted upon a common insulating block 23 secured to and supported bytwo members 24 extendlng'radially from and fixed to a shaft 25. Theshaft 25 is arranged in a parallel relatlon with the shaft 21 and isprovided in opposite ends of the casing with suitable bearlngs 26. Thesupporting base for the contact fingers thus has a pivotal movement withthe shaft 25 as its axis whereby it may be moved into either of the twopositions illustrated in full and dotted lines,

Fig. 3. In the full line position it supports the contact fingers 11 to15 in operative relation with respect to the drum and the fingers 16 and17 in engagement with the stationary contacts 18 and 19. Upon movementto its dotted line position it carries all of the contact fingers awayfrom their respective cooperating drum segments-and stationary contacts.The angular position of the contact fingers under the former conditionsis indicated by full lines and under the latter conditions by dottedlines, Fig. 3. The stationary contacts 18 and 19 are both fixed to aninsulating base 27 fixed to brackets 28 within the casing and to therear of the shafts 21 and 25. Both contacts 18 and 19 are of similarconstruction and, as shown in Fig. 3, the contact 19 comprises a stripextending over the drum shaft and having a downwardly projecting contactportion 19 at its free end to be engaged by the contact 17. Theinsulating base 27 also affords a support for suitable fuses 30 andbinding posts 31 for the contact fingers. As illustrated in Fig. 3, thecontact fingers may be connected to the binding posts 31 by flexibleconductor 32. The drum section and contact fingers, as illustrated, areof conventional types and accordingly need no detailed description.

The member 23 carrying the several contact fingers is biased to itsdotted line position and is adapted to be releasably latched in its fullline position. The aforesaid bias of said member is effected by a spring33 surrounding the left-hand end of the shaft 25, Fig. l, and having oneend secured to the casing 20 and its other end secured to one of themembers 24 fixed to said shaft. A lever 34 fixed to the right hand endof the shaft 25 provides for movement of the member 23 to its full lineposition to set the contact fingers in operative position as aforesaid.This lever carries a pawl. 35 adapted to latch with a relatively fixedpawl 36 when the support for contact fingers is moved to its full lineposition. Either pawl, however, may be'disengaged from the other torelease the lever 34 and thus permit the spring 33 to move the contactfingers outwardly. The latch 35 is normally held in effective positionby a sprin 37 and is adapted to be tripped by a pm 38 in the handle ofthe lever 33, which pin is operable at Will by apush-button 39. The pawl36, on the other hand, constitutes one arm of a bell-crank lever 40forming the armature of an electro-magnet 41. The arrangement is suchthat the pawl 36 is rendered effective as a latch when the magnet 41 isenergized, and, conversely, is rendered ineffective when the magnet isdeenergized.

Thus provision is made for release of thelever 34 at will by tripping ofthe the pawl 35 and for automatic release of said lever bydeenergization of the magnet 41. The magnet 41 is preferably of the lowvoltage type to automatically release the lever upon failure of voltage.The magnet 41 may, in practice, he of any preferred design and locatedas desired. As illustrated, the same is of the conventional form and ishoused in a box 42 secured to or formed integral with the casing 20 andprovided with an opening 43 through which the armature 40 projects.

The operation of the drum is effected through the following means,illustrated in Figs. 1 and 4. The shaft 21 has revolubly mounted thereontwo disks 50 and 51. These disks have overlapping hub flanges 52 and arerevoluble relative to one another as Well as to the shaft 21. They are,however, connected to one another through a concentric coiled spring 53disposed between them. As best illustrated in Fig. 4, one end of thespring is connected to the hub flange of the disk 51 while the other endof said spring is secured to a lug 54 provided at the outer periphery ofthe disk 50. D The disk 50 is'also provided on its periphery with twosubstantially diametrically disposed lugs 55 and 56 while disk 51 isprovided with similar lugs 57 and 58, but disposed in an opposedrelation with respect to the lugs of the disk 50. The lugs 56 and 58 areprovided to receive therebetween a lug 59 carried b a radial arm 60- 57are provided to receive therebetween a lug 61 projecting from a wormsegment 62 revolubly mounted upon the shaft 21.

With the aforesaid arrangement, should 7 tate the shaft 21. On the otherhand, the

spring provides a yielding connection between the worm segment and theshaft whereby the latter may be restrained from movement while theformer is operated to store up energy in said spring and this is theaction provided for. It is provided for by pawls 63 and 64 pivotallysupported on the walls of the casing 20 in such a relation that each maylatch with the shaft lug 59 when in certain position and, also, in sucha relation with respect to the worm segment as to be tripped thereby incertain positions of the latter.

The worm segment, as will hereinafter appear, is power-operated andeffects the operation of the shaft in the following manner assuming theparts to be in the positions illustrated in Fig. 4. As illustrated inthis figure the lug 59 is engaged and is latched by the pawl 64 andhence, if the worm segment be moved in a counter-clockwise direction itwill drive in the same direction the disk 51. Thedisk 50, on the otherhand, will be locked against movement in this direction by the lug 59 solong as said lug is latched by the pawl 64. In consequence, the spring53 will be tensioned until the Worm gear strikes and tripsthe latch 64.Thereupon the lug 59 and disk 50 will be freed and the energy stored inthe spring 53 will drive both in a counter-clockwise direction disk 51is held stationary through the lug 59 and the latch 63. When, however,the worm segment strikes and trips the latch 63 the lug 59 will be freedand-the energy stored in the spring 53 will be expended to drive thedisk 51 and the lug 59in a clockwise direction to reverse the rotationof the shaft and restore the drum to its former position. Thus, duringoperation of the worm segment the drum section of the controller remainsstationary, but after a predetermined movement of. the segment it ismechanically actuated with a quick action in a direction correspondingto the direction of rotation of the segment. In consequence, if

the controller be designed to effect reversal of the controlled motor byreversal of its movement and said motor be used to drive the wormsegment it will automatically effect its own reversal at definiteintervals.

As will hereinafter appear, the controller illustrated is designed forthis operation. \Vhen in one extreme position it establishes connectionsfor forward operation of the motor and when in its other extremeposition establishes reverse connections for the motor. As the drumpasses from one extreme position to another, it opens the motor circuit,but only momentarily as its continued movement to circuit closingposition is insured'by the spring Returning to the details ofconstruction, the worm segment is driven by a worm fixed to a shaft 66having suitable bearings 67 in opposite walls of the casing, said shaftextending at right angles to the shaft 21. Thus, if the shaft (56 beconnected to the controlled motor or to the machine driven by saidmotor, the result will be as above described. In practice it is usuallydesired to use one or more resistance elements in connection with thecontroller and, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, a number of resistanceelements (38 are housed in the casing 20 above the controller contacts.

Referring to the circuit diagram ill-Fig. 5, the drum section of thecontroller is shown as provided with eight contact segments 70 to 7 7.These segments are divided into two sets, one set including the contacts70 to 73 adapted in one extreme position of the drum to engage fingers11 to 14, and the other set including segments 74 to 77 adapted in theother extreme position of the drum to engage fingers 12 to 15 inclusive.The two positions of the drum are indicated by dotted lines (za and b-band it is to be understood that the drum, when brought to rest, alwaysassumes one of these two positions. The segments 70, 71, 74 and 75 areelectrically connected and the segments 72, 73, 76 and 77 areelectrically connected. The controller is shown as controlling thecontinuity of circuit and direction of operation of a series motor 78having an armature A and series field winding F. The motor 78 will beassumed to effect operation of the drum in the manner above described.

As shown, the drum is in position a and in this position completescircuit from line L to contact 18 and finger 16 by conductor 79 throughthe notor field winding F and series resistance R by conductor 80 tocontact finger 12 and segment 71 across to segment 70 and finger 11 byconductor 81 through the motor armature from left to right by conductor82 to finger 13 and segment 72 across to segment 73 and finger 14 byconductor 83 to finger 17 and contact 19 to line L. With suchconnections the motor will operate in a predetermined direction andoperate the drum, as above described. Thereupon segments 70, 71, 72 and73 will leave their respective contact fingers and thereby momentarilyinterrupt the motor circuit, after which segments 74, 75, 76 and 77 willen age fingers 12, 13, 14 and 15 respectively. 1115 recloses the motorcircuit to finger 12 as already described, thence to segment 74 acrossto segment 75 and finger 13 by conductor 82 through the motor armaturefrom right to left by conductor 84 to finger 15 and segment 77 thence tosegment 76 and finger 14 by conductor 83 to line L, as alrea y Thiseffects a reversal of the flow of current through the motor armature andin consequence a. reversal of the direction of opera tion of the motorwith the results already set forth. The diagram also shows the magnetwinding 41 as connected from contact finger 16 by conductor 85 throughsaid winding by conductor 86 to finger 17. Accordingly, said winding isconnected across the motor circuit and is subject to denergization uponfailure of voltage. This winding, it will be remembered, must bemaintained energized to effect retention of the contact fingers inoperative relation with respect to the drum and to the stationarycontacts 18 and 19. I

The utility and advantages of the movable contact fingers will now bereadily apparent. Upon failure of voltage the latching means for thefingers will be automatically tripped thereby releasing said fingers andin consequence efi'ecting interruption of the motor from circuit. Again,manual tripping of said latching means enables the release of saidfingers to interrupt the motor circuit at will. Further, it is oftendesirable to inch or tease the controlled motor and the contact fingersmay be readily operated for this purpose through the medium of the lever34. Still further, the contact fingers may, if desired, be arranged toleave their respective contacts simultaneously and therebysimultaneously interrupt circuit at a multiplicity of points to minimizethe arcing, or, conversely, circuit interruption may be limited tocertain fingers. Thus all newssity for additional contacts for manualcontrol is eliminated.

In brief, the controller thus provided is functionally of a duplexcharacter being susceptible of automatic operation for certain purposesand of manual operation for other purposes. On the other hand, thecontroller is structurally unitary in character with many apparentattending advantages.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In acircuit controller, in combination, a plurality of relatively stationarycontacts and an automatically operated contact member to cooperatetherewith, said contacts being movable out of operative relation withrespect to said member to break circuit in any position of the latterand having manual and automatic controlling means.

traced.

2. In a circuit controller, in combination,

a plurality of stationary contacts, an automatically operated contactmember to cooperate therewith, sald contacts being movable out ofoperative relation with respect to, said member to break circuit in anyposition of the latter, and means insuring against arrest of saidautomatically operated member except in a position whereby circuit maybe reclosed by return of said contacts to op- 'erative relationtherewith.

tion with a movable contact device, of relatively stationary contacts tobe engaged thereby, said device having automatic operating meanscontrolled thereby and said relatively stationary contacts being movableout of operative relation with said device to interrupt the controlledcircuit and thereby efl'ect arrest of said device and means insuringagainst the arrest of said device except in a position whereby thecontrolled circuit may be reclosed by return of said contacts tooperative relation with said device.

5. In a circuit controller, in combination, a plurality of relativelystationary contacts, a movable contact device to cooperate therewith,said stationary contacts being biased to a position out of operativerelation with respect to said .device and means for setting saidcontacts in operative relation with respect to said device andreleasably retaining the same in the latter relation.

6. In a circuit controller, in combination, a plurality of relativelystationary contacts, a movable contact device to cooperate therewith,said stationary contacts being biased to a position out of operativerelation with respect to said device and means for setting said contactsin operative relation with respect to said device and releasablyretaining the same in the latter relation, said means actingautomatically under abnormal electrical conditions to release saidcontacts.

7. In a circuit controller, in combination,

a plurality of relatively stationary contacts,

- respect to said device and means for setting said contacts inoperative relation with respect to said device and releasably retainingthe same in the latter relation, said means acting automatically underabnormal electrical conditions and being operable at will to releasesaid contacts.

arravae 8. In a circuit controller, in combination a revoluble contactdevice, a plurality o relatively stationary contacts to cooperatetherewith and having a common supporting member adjustable toremove saidcontacts from operative relation with respect to said device andautomatically responsive releasing means for said supporting member alsooperable manually. I

9. In a circuit controller, in combination, a revoluble contact device,a .plurality of contacts to cotiperate therewith, a common support forall of said contacts adjustable to move the same into and out ofoperative relation with respect to said device and biased to move thesame out of operative relation and means for latching said support inposition to retain said contacts in operative relation with said device.

10. In a circuit controller, in combination, a revoluble contact device,a plurality of contacts to cooperate therewith, a common support for allof said contacts adjustable to move the same into and out of operativerelation with respect to said device and biased to move the same out ofoperative relation and electro-magnetically controlled means forlatching said support in position to retain said contacts in operativerelation with said device.

11. In a circuit controller, in combination, a revoluble contact device,a plurality of relatively stationary contacts to be engaged thereby, acommon supporting member for said contacts biased to a position toremove said contacts from operative relation with said. device andelectro-magnetically controlled means for latching said support in aposition to retain said contacts in operative 1 contacts being movableaway from said device to interrupt circuit and being returnabletooperative relation with respect to said device to reestablish circuit.

13. In a circuit controller, in combination, an automatically rotatedcontact device and relatively stationary cooperating contacts movableinto and out of operative relation therewith to make and break acontrolled circuit, said device being dependent for operation uponengagement of said contacts with said device but having means associatedtherewith to insure predetermined positioning thereof when said contactsdisengage said device during rotation of the latter.

14. In a circuit controller, in combination,

a movable contact device andrelatively stationary cooperating contacts,said device having automatic operating means to efiect repetition of apredetermined cycle of operation to vary the controlled connections andsaidstationary contacts being movable out 16. In. combination, avcircuit controller,

including a movable contact device and a relatively stat onarycooperating contact device and a motor controlled thereby andoperatively connected to said movable contact device to drive the same,said stationary contact, device being movable into and out of operativerelation with respect to said driven contact device to stop said motorand restart the same at will.

17 In combination, a motor and a reversing controller therefor includinga movable contact device operatively connected to said motor to move inopposite directions in accordance with direction of operation of saidmotor and stationary contacts cooperating with said device and movableout of operative relation "therewith to stop said motor.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presenceor" two witnesses.

THOMAS E. BARNUMD Witnesses:

TEKLA BAs'r, L. ALWATSON.

